I’ve talked before about my friendship with Jan Strnad - we go way way to the days when Jesus rode a dinosaur, and he was the guy who taught me the secrets to writing comics.

Jan’s cred includes a ton of collaborations with Richard Corben, some of the best of the old underground comix, the occasional work for Marvel and DC (Sword of the Atom), a run on Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics, animation writing (Darkwing Duck), indy comics (Dalgoda) and novels.

I read and enjoyed the heck out of his first novel, Risen, and I’m pleased to report that he’s got a new one coming out this month. Jan’s always been drawn to darker, fantastical material, and The Summer We Lost Alice continues down that path as a supernatural mystery.

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“Can't you hear Diana Prince whining to Hippolyta, 'Kal-El isn't just any superboy, Mother! He's the only one who truly understands me and loves me for who I am!' while Kal-El is whining something similar to the hologram of Jor-El? This better not turn into Twilight for fanboys.”

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It’s hard to believe that Joe Kubert passed away. His work was such a large part of my comic book experience and his war comics are so ingrained on my psyche that it feels like the passing of a great man of literature.

From Sgt. Rock, to Enemy Ace, to Tarzan and dozens more, his work never disappointed. His covers were dynamic, fluid, and never looked like anyone else’s. I could spot Kubert art a mile away. I loved his covers on Son Of Tomahawk, and I really liked a tryout series of his called Firehair, about a red-headed boy raised by native Americans.

And as much as I loved his war comics, it was his Tarzan that was a revelation to me. I’d read the Gold Key stuff which I found stiff and unexciting, but when I picked up the first issue Kubert did for DC, I was amazed at how he got me to like a character I was never really interested in.

Years later, I was fortunate enough to be involved in the publication of one of Joe’s graphic albums, Abraham Stone, at Malibu Comics. Here’s how that came about.

So the Olympics are finally over, and that means it's time to talk about real heroes, right? Y'know, the ones in capes!

For most of us, we have the belief that Bill Finger is the true creator of everything that made Batman great. Here’s why.

Jake Hinkson looks at The Dark Knight Rises and the other two parts of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy: “Unlike the set-bound comic-gothic theatrics of Tim Burton's Batman films or the plastic sex-toy quality of Joel Schumacher's films, Batman Begins is a full on epic.”

Comic Con International has come and gone already. Naturally, my Comic Con experience is quite a bit different from most people. I’ve been going for quite a while, have a lot of friends and acquaintances that I see there, and have an established routine of places to be at certain times.

I got there too late on Wednesday for what some reported was a raucous Preview Night, so my convention didn’t start until Thursday morning.

Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter has a rundown of convention memories from around the internet. (And congratulations to Tom for his Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Journalism. It’s well-deserved.

You’ve probably seen this all over the internets, but a little more won’t hurt. Veteran comic book writer Roger Slifer was hit by a car this past weekend.

Roger worked for both DC (where he created Lobo) and Marvel (where he worked on Avengers and Marvel Two-In-One), and later produced and/or story-edited the TV shows Jem And The Holograms, Transformers, Street Fighter and others.

Here’s the story, as reported by Flint Dille:

“Roger Slifer is in intensive care after being run over in a hit and run on Friday Night around 1:00. We had originally thought of keeping this quiet, because Roger is a fairly private guy, but as word is out and time might be of the essence if we're going to find the hit-and-run driver, I'll post what I know.

I don’t know how he does it, but somehow editor J.C. Vaughn is able to assemble his team each year and whip together a new edition of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. This year it’s #42 (!) and it’s just as big and wonderful as ever. This year’s version is available with three different covers: Joe Jusko, Adam Hughes, and (my favorite) Matt Wagner. Just beautiful-looking stuff.

As always, in addition to the latest go-to prices for comics new and old (and really old, like the 16th Century), the Guide has a ton of great articles on comics history, plus market reports from their advisers, the Overstreet Hall of Fame, and even a new look at one of the best graphic novels ever, Batman: Son Of The Demon.

For me, I love the articles, but I also like flipping through the pages and looking at covers of old comics to see how they've changed over the years. I get a real kick out of all the funny (and strange) titles and the trivia (artist appearances and character first appearances and stuff like that). It's like an annual history book of comics and in each volume I always find good stuff that makes it a worthwhile purchase.